Definitely try Ubuntu as a easy starter. Supports a lot of hardware, is a good first step.
this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2023
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OP said lightweight. Ubuntu is many things, but lightweight isn't one of them.
How about Lubuntu or Xubuntu? What are the drawbacks of these?
Imo, they're better than Ubuntu with Gnome in terms of resources, but they have two drawbacks: it's still Canonical, so all their controversial decisions affect you too, and it's still rather resource intensive because Ubuntu and it's derivative want to be very easy to install with minimal configuration. The latter is an advantage if you want a system that "just works™", but becomes a drawback when your resources are limited
I took lightweight as in "easy to get into" as opposed to "write your own wireless driver". My bad!
And I took it as "doesn't take GiBs of RAM at idle"
Fair enough 😅
Install the Ubuntu server. Do not install any (suggested) programs and DEs. After reboot manually install xorg, xinit and some lightweight WM (for example sudo apt install xmonad xmobar). Open terminal and write echo >> ~/xinitrc exec xmonad (for example). Reboot. At the tty prompt type startx /usr/bin/xmonad. You get an empty and fast ubuntu-based distro.
It's more of a hassle than just installing Debian with your preferred WM. Plus doing the latter, you don't have to scratch your head at snaps
undefined> It’s more of a hassle than just installing Debian with your preferred WM. Plus doing the latter, you don’t have to scratch your head at snaps
I think setting up wifi in Debian netinstall will be just as troublesome as fighting the dreaded and horrible snap.
Depends if you're using the non-free firmware iso or not
There is a wifi/bluetooth module, the rtl8821. It comes with cheap or old Windows laptops, try to find an open source driver for it.
I happen to have this exact chipset in my laptop (RTL8821CE to be exact), and it has driver modules directly in the mainline kernel (rtw_8821ce). The only possible issue would be firmware, but I honestly had absolutely no issue installing Arch, Gentoo, or Debian (with the non-free firmware iso) on it multiple times.
undefined> I happen to have this exact chipset in my laptop (RTL8821CE to be exact), and it has driver modules directly in the mainline kernel (rtw_8821ce). The only possible issue would be firmware, but I honestly had absolutely no issue installing Arch, Gentoo, or Debian (with the non-free firmware iso) on it multiple times.
We talked about using only free firmware, drivers, etc. I gave an example. For example, I am much more comfortable using OpenBSD than Arch/Gentoo/Debian. But I can't do that because the elements of the firmware are in the kernel, but not enough to make it work properly. With any Linux distribution this is not a problem.
We never mentioned the restrictions of only free firmware. In fact your argument of installing Ubuntu only makes sense in the first place, because Ubuntu ships non-free firmware
You can Try Fedora Workstation. its good for beginners and advanced users alike. It has brought hardware support and comes with flatpak - a large repository of software.
TL;DR: I'd say EndeavourOS.
Note that as a general rule, the more lightweight a distro is at "run-time", the heavier it is at "configure-time", because you'll have to make choices depending on your needs to get better performance. As an example, probably the lightest weight distro is Gentoo, thanks to compiler optimization and USE flags. But it's a distro with an incredibly steep learning curve. On the other side of the spectrum, there's Ubuntu, which is one of the distros that requires least user configuration, but is also a resource hog. In my opinion EndeavourOS strikes a good balance between the two factors (Disclaimer: I don't daily drive it. I've used it enough to know I can recommend it)
I'm using Endeavour and Fedora on Desktop and Laptop and love both OS. Endeavours advantage: always the newest software, no hassle with upgrading/new installation. On the downside is Archlinux (and Endeavour) not usable without AUR (and AUR is a little scary as far as security is concerned). Fedora's sweet point is it's professional quality (compared with Endeauvour): No AUR needed, more comfortable overall (Fedora is more userfriendly than Ubuntu), and skills in Fedora pays of when working on the webserver. Downside: Update/new installation every half year is not so fine.
For a long time, I'm a Ubuntu LTS user. Main reasons were that I had to admin other desktops at home and at work. Both of those reasons have disappeared though, so I'm thinking of switching. However, I'm have a different profile.
As a "lighter weight easy starter distro" I still think Ubuntu is fine. You will find a lot of support for all kinds of questions online.
Depends what you mean by light weight. On desktops I'm using the LTS releases of Ubuntu, or rather Kubuntu since close to 20 years. (On servers I stick to Debian for even longer, but I guess I wouldn't use it as a desktop starter.)
I'm currently on Fedora for a variety of reasons. It's relatively up to date in terms of modern technology and is frequently updated, and its a bit more stable than something like arch
Ubuntu is very easy but is not very light. One alternative is Linux mint, fairly easy and lighter than Ubuntu.
Is there actually a big difference in lightweightness between distros, that does not go back to the Desktop Environment and used Software?
I will forever recommemd Pop!_OS if you have an Nvidia GPU. IDK What System76 does different but I have had almost 0 issues with Nvidia on Pop!_OS
Personally, I prefer Arch or OpenSUSE.
The distributions themselves are usually not the problem, but rather various programs. For example, a current browser nowadays often needs several GB of RAM.
since i installed debian ( ??3?? i think) , on the first xbox with a self soldered chip ( sorry, its to long ago. i use debian. startet with SuSE 4.2 but then the xbox incident with debian and so, just debian. on my server, on my vm's, on my workstation... just debian.
I'm not really a 'starter'. I started with Ubuntu (long time ago), then used Fedora, then Arch Linux and now I settled on Debian. You can install Debian very light for example without graphical desktop or a minimal one like i3. The installation holds for a long time. No need to be scared every 6 month that a major update will break something. It does not always ship bleeding-edge software. But often that's for good.
There's a graphical installer. Setup usually goes quite smooth.
I use and really like Fedora. But the documentation for the needed multimedia packages isn't good.
Ubuntu (also as basis for other distributions) is more widely used. So you can find more instructions for that.
I were able to use my Nvidia graphics card and steam on both of them. On Fedora the Nvidia driver is in the repository. So you don't need to download from the Nvidia package. Also my fingerprint sensor on my Lenovo T15 worked out of the box with Fedora.
Fedora Budgie spin. Budgie has been my fav on my old Lenovo T510 and my Acer Ryzen 3 laptop, to the point I'm thinking of converting all my stuff to it.
Clean and light bout 600 - 640 MB RAM at boot.
recommendation: something simple like fedora
favourite: either NixOS or gentoo
Ubuntu is my favourite distribution. I tried Manjaro but returned to Ubuntu because I am used to APT. I don't like pacman....
I started with Linuxmint on my latop. It is easy to install and to use. But now I'm using Debian (stable) on my laptop. On my desktop I'm using Debian (testing) because of the newer hardware for gaming.
My answer to such questions will always be Debian Stable with the Xfce desktop. https://wiki.debian.org/Xfce
Debian is the basis on which Ubuntu (and in turn everything based on Ubuntu) is built. If you take Ubuntu, remove most of the bullshit, add a lot of well-written help documents, and do a lot of QA work and bug-fixing, you end up with Debian Stable. The only real downside is that with Debian you really need to read the installation guide. Where other distribution's installers just do things to your computer without your consent, the Debian installer will ask a lot of questions, and the installation guide gives you the necessary knowledge so you can give an informed answer. Another issue with Debian is that some default security settings are rather restrictive, and you might need the administrator ("root") password more often than you'd like (and be it only to change those settings...).
That said, there are more lightweight distributions than Debian, and more lightweight desktops than Xfce, but I think Debian with Xfce is a good compromise for a beginner, when it comes to the balance between being lightweight and still user-friendly. (I personally use Gentoo on my desktop, with the Sway window manager. That's way more lightweight, but Gentoo is a lot more complicated to set up and maintain than Debian, and Sway is, well, let's just say you need to write a configuration file in order to use it.)
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